Description:When Burslem's most influential citizens wished to gather at the Town Hall to discuss politics, they had to seek the permission of the local High Constable.
Permission granted
Here the Constable grants official consent for a meeting to discuss Josiah Wedgwood's stand for Parliament in 1832.
Wedgwood was asked to stand for Newcastle-under-Lyme's seat. The crucial factor was that he supported the idea that Stoke-on-Trent should have its own Member of Parliament (MP), along with other industrial areas like Sheffield, Manchester and Birnmingham - in other words, he was "pro-reform."
Until now, the industrial Potteries had shared their MP with the rest of rural Staffordshire.
Reform
But men like Enoch and Joseph Wood, Edward and George Phillips, W.H. Sharp, Ralph Johnson and John Pepper - who signed this notice - wished to be better represented, and so supported these new reforms.
About this document
Burslem pottery manufacturer Enoch Wood collected this notice, which is now among the collections at Stoke-on-Trent Museums.